Tumor Size

Nicholai's lymph tumors grow steadily, if slowly, larger as time goes by. It's hard for me to see this, to acknowledge that our treatment methods are not managing to cure him of this disease; I would so like to see him cured. The lumps on his neck have required lengthening his collars so as not to put undue stress on what are clearly already stressed body parts. Nodes in Nicholai's groin are big as goose eggs and I wonder if they cause him discomfort – he doesn't show it in any way that I can see.

In treating cancer, patients and doctors alike like to get rid of tumors. When getting rid of them is not a reasonable option, we try to shrink them. I get this; I want to shrink Nicholai's tumors very badly. The thing is, shrinking tumors is not always associated with longevity or reductions in recurrences of the disease. We diminish the tumor – usually via radiation or chemotherapy – only to have it return, sometimes with a vengeance. Often the cancer will show up elsewhere, having managed to spread to distant body parts even via a shrunken tumor.

Back when Linus Pauling did his vitamin C studies, he found that people with advanced cancer – people oncology had given up on – survived longer and better than those on traditional oncology protocols by administering high doses of vitamin C; living an average of five times longer than their hospitalized counterparts. When the Mayo clinic undertook studying the role of vitamin C in cancer treatment, they were able to monitor tumor sizes because they had vast resources for diagnostic tests that Dr. Pauling did not have available.

The Mayo clinic was able to determine via imaging studies that tumors were not decreasing in size. Though patients had less pain, more energy, and generally felt better on the high vitamin C doses, their tumors did not diminish and in some cases continued to grow. Alarmed by this finding, the researchers discontinued the study – even though patients died sooner without the vitamin C, so compelling is the tumor-shrinking paradigm.
Waiting for dinner, looking like Joker with those swollen nodes

In spite of his massive tumors, Nicholai eats heartily, poops well (yes, still inspecting), and dances in the morning to express his anticipation of going with me on our walk-hike-swim. The recent heat has made him pant excessively, waking me in the wee hours once or twice, and in the dark of night I wonder if the mere size of the cancerous growths is the cause of his distress.

I have to remind myself that shrinking tumors is mostly unrelated to survival. Nicholai has beaten his odds and the tumors have never disappeared. As intuitive as it seems to focus efforts on eliminating tumors and as much as I want it to happen, perhaps it is the wrong place to focus.